Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-06-16
KANSAS GAS.
Minneapolis, kansas, Me.senger.]

--~--=zra AAN0A0 UAOs
Minneapolis, =Kansas, Messenger.l
In very interesting article published
in the fifth biennial report Of the State
Board of Agriculture 1856, prepared
by Prof. Rubert Hays, U. S. G, S., he
says: "In the gas question as in others,
Kansas is the Central State. The
geology of her eastern borders touches
that of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Her
western limits include shales and sand
stone that ally her to the oil and gas
deposits of Wyoming. Her western
counties may yet find in natural gas a
native fuel, The italics in the above
quotation are the professors. A
volume is here compressed into single
paragraph, '1n this gas question, as
in others, Kansas is the central State. ="
Prof. Hay is not only high, but disinter-
ested authority. He is not a Kansan
or interested personally in Kansas, but
is geological authority of high order,
connected with the geological survey Of
the United States Government, and con-
sequently his testimony is entitled to
peculiar weight. Several gas wells have
been opened at Paola. Miami county in
this state, all of which are at this time
furnish an immense supply. Indeed,
so great is the flow that company Is
being formed to pipe it into Kansas
City, distance of nearly forty miles,
in which Kansas City capitalists, prin-
cipally, are interested. The depth of
these wells varies somewhat IN the same
locality, those at Paola varying from
289 to 3O4 feet from the surface to the
top of the 'sgas sand or sand rock in
which the gas is found. The gas finds,
however, are not confined exclusively
to sand rocks, as abundant supplies Of
it have been found IN the Trenton lime
stone formations.
Probably the most productive gas
fields known to exist at the present
time are those in the vicinity of Pitts.
burg.
To show the great value of natural
gas to any community. in which it exists
it is sufficient to state that in the city
Of Pittsburg the consumption of gas has
displaced 10000 tons of coal per day,
gas taker its place for all the purposes
for which coal has heretofore been used
The two principal wells of this group,
the Burns and Delamatin, are about
1000 feet down to the fourth sand
stratum, in which the gas is found.
At Findlay, O., where gas was devel
oped in November, 1884, the wells were
sent down to depth Of only l, 100 feet
at which depth vast deposits were open
ed in the upper:and lower, "Silurian Era
a much older formation than that in
which it appeared at Pittsburg and
strangely enough at less depth from
the surface by 500 feet. Findlay i.
west from Pittsburg and Paola, where
gas is found at 800 feet, is long way
west of Findlay. 1t is question fo1
the scientists, whether the degrees Of
longitude affects the depth below thu
surface of the earth, at which the straits
lie tnat bear these wonde rful deposits.
Gas in abundance has been found a,
Fort Scott, Bourbon county, at adeptf
of only trife over 200 feet. For'
Scott is doubtless in the same great OF
and gas field as Paola, being only about
fifty miles due south of that point, while
at the two intermediate places, La Cygnt
and Pleasanton, gas has been struck
There can, seemingly. be no good reason
why coal, gas ana oil may not be found
right here In Minneapolis. The fac'
that coal has been found near us, that
gas is now flowing near Abilene, anc
that for years on many Of the farms all
about US traces of coal have been found
in digging for water. All these facts
ought to stimulate our people to make
the effort TO ascertain whether we may
not be as fortunate as other communities
have been that have gone to work with
determination to know what mine of
wealth old mother nature might yield
up to persistent and well directed
effort to obtain it.